How to jailbreak iOS 5.1.1 on your iPhone 4S, new iPad, and more with Greenpois0n Absinthe

If you've been waiting for a iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak you're in luck. Greepois0n Absinthe 2.0 was just released and you can now enjoy an untethered jailbreak on your iPhone 4S, new iPad, and several other iOS devices. If you've never used Greenpois0n before, that's okay. Hit the jump for a walkthrough!

Back up your data

Before running any jailbreak tool you should always back up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch just in case something goes wrong. So make sure you have either a recent iCloud backup or iTunes backup before proceeding to the actual jailbreak process. If you aren't sure how to perform a backup, you can check out our guides:

Jailbreak your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

First download Greenpois0n Absinthe 2.0 2.0.1 to your computer from our downloads section. It is available for Mac, PC, and Linux.

Next, install the program and open Absinthe with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch plugged into your computer.

Click the Jailbreak button to begin the process.

This process may take a while to complete so you'll have to be a little patient. Mine took about 6 minutes total. Your device may say Restore in Progress, that's okay.

When you see the message Done, enjoy! on your computer you can go ahead and unplug your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

You're done! Cydia will be on your Home screen and you're good to go!

If you've never jailbroken before, this is a super easy tool to start with. If you have jailbroken before, you'll appreciate how easy this one is compared to previous tools. If you do happen to run into problems or need help, check out our jailbreak help and discussion forums via the link below.

Trying to decide if I want to do this again. I jailbroke my old iPhone 4 (have the same model now, just a newer phone) with JailbreakMe and I had severe performance issues and abysmal battery life even with several restores.

re: "This is stupid-proof jailbreak, even a 4yr old kid can do it"
It's great that this worked for you but the above is fairly insulting to those that are having problems. I've tried multiple times and the progress bar just hangs or outright fails.
The ReadMe file says to (backup and then) completely reset the device (not just if you're having problems, but as a matter of course), jailbreak, then restore from backup so that the jailbreak doesn't take so long.
I let mine run for several hours, woke up, and saw that it failed.
Again, good for you that it worked for you, but it's not working for everyone.

Yep I'm having the same problem. I've tried multiple times. I start the jailbreak, the progress bar gets to almost halfway, then it hangs and says "error, windows will shut down the program". I shut it down, and restart the process, it says "u had an install problem, we'll retry" it does that, then hangs and shuts down again.
Any known fixes?

Woohoo!! just jailbroke my iPad 3... However I did run in to a little issue at the end. It went through the process fine, until the very end I got an error message saying: "could not connect to downald (maybe they meant download?!?) abort!"
But Cydia still managed to install! so all is good. :-)
Props to the JB Dream Team!

Holy hell. 20 minutes?!
Ally said that hers took 6 minutes so, if mine doesn't show any additional progress about about 5 minutes, I assume it failed.
(Of course, the first time, it actually did fail after several hours.)
This is why some are scared $#!+less of jailbreaks n whatnot. They're afraid that it won't be as simple as some say and that something will go horribly wrong.
It's not been horrible yet, but my confidence isn't peaking, at the moment.

Done.
It took about 15 minutes, all told. (The initial part may have taken about 6 minutes, but there's more after that.)
I did NOT completely reset the iPad so I did not have to restore it. Thank GOODNESS.
I cannot tell you how much I will miss XP.

I think that was my first jailbreak.
Jailbreakme.com was the shiz. Without that, I'm not sure I'd have taken the initial plunge. Without that, I'm not sure I'd have been happy with my original iPad.
There were/are too many data network restrictions n whatnot. If I want to download a podcast bigger than 20MB (the restriction at the time), I didn't want to be barred from doing so until I got to a wifi hotspot or came home.
Now it's up to 50MB but there are apps bigger than that. HAVING to use wifi for such things is a real pain.
Having the option to share one's internet connection can be a virtual life-saver.
If it weren't for those types of limitations, I'd have stayed "pure" for the duration.

Just an FYI. The last time I jailbroke my phone I had to remove my PIN code ( or Exchange account if your work requires a PIN code.). Basically remove the PIN (or Exchange account), reboot your phone, and then the jailbreak worked just fine.
Hope that helps.
Chris

Im scared. Its my new iPad, my first Apple device, and im just really scared if something goes wrong.
My friend had tried too jailbreak his iPad, he ending up taking to the store to fix it.
I live in India so there should be no problem right?

Did you back-up your device before attempting the jailbreak? I hope so.
I'd suggest resetting the device, attempting the jailbreak, again (if you're so inclined) and then restoring from that back-up.
If you did not back it up, I hope someone had set up automatic syncing for you because for some stuff, if it's not backed up, you can't get it back.

@west...i did everythin'....this happened just after i opened cydia...i guess it crashed....no default icons...the camera was accessible from the lock screen n the photos thru camera but they r not on the homescreen...nothing on homescreen....n now somehow its in recovery mode...m unable to get out of it...not able to go in dfu mode...tried everything.....i'd appreciate any help.....thanx for the reply btw.....shud i download custom ipsw or restore n update it thru itunes? :((

I lost all my factory icons including setting after opening Cydia. I tried to restore with custom ROM to preserve Barnabe but iTunes keep giving me error 1600. Please help me my iPhone is totally useless now. Thank you

I have the iphone 4 with 5.1.1 os and i had it semi-tethered. Tried to do the jailbreak but didnt work because it was jail broken already. I did a restore and unjailbroke my phone. Tried the jailbreak again and the computer crashed, program froze, phone restarted deleted all information, and now when i plug my iphone in itunes tells me that the device cannot be connected and gives me this error message (0xE8000012) any advice?

Have the same problem here but with ipad 3, I've jailbroken my ipad 3 GSM and I get this itunes error. I just found thin thread http://www.idroidproject.org/forum/index.php?topic=147.15 and at he end of second page it says someone has finally solved but haven't tried it yet. Also i'm not sure if it's doing to help since is a 2010 thread.
Have you had any luck? if so please get bak and let me know. don't know if I should try what the thread says because it involves getting a new error for what I understand

Mine played but it often played the wrong songs. It would even say it was one song when it was another.
I use iTunes Match so I deleted and then reloaded my songs. It seems to be working fine now.
I suspect is is why the ReadMe file told us to delete/reset everything before starting the jb.

I have an iPhone 4 and when i download the absinthe software and try to jailbreak it just says please connect iOS device and doesn't recognize that the iPhone is plugged in. I am running 10.7.4 and i even tried starting the phone in DFU mode and it still doesn't recognize the device as being plugged in. I tried 2.0 and 2.0.1 I also have an older mac running 10.5.8 and when I tried it on there absinthe says that the device is not supported but it does recognize that it's connected but either way no way to jailbreak my iPhone 4 so Im not sure what to do, any suggestions?

I've been trying off and on to jailbreak all weekend. Using an iphone 4s, on Rogers in Canada (but fully unlocked) and windows 7 - I've downloaded the absinthe 3 times, am on 2.02 now and 1/2 way through while it says "sending initial jailbreak data. This may also take a while" - it always stops and I get a windows error saying absinthe.exe has stopped working. ANY IDEAS MOST WELCOME??

Same problem here. Tried running as administrator and also tried using xp compatability mode. Neither worked. Have tried on two different computers with no result. First time I haven't been able to JB. not happy

Hey guys, I've just got a simple question, but I just would like it confirmed by a few people..
After jailbreaking on iOS 5.1.1, let's say Apple releases iOS 6 a few months later (I'm just using it as an example), could I update through iTunes and not have my device wipeout/crash? I know I will lose my jailbreak...

i installed jailbreak and cydia is on home screen but none of the apps work. they are installed like intelliscreen but when i go to settings it is not there. i can open cydia and download apps but they are no where to be found on phone after. any suggestions? thanks

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Took me a while at first. Windows kept saying program stopped working. I deleted all data and reset settings (settings -> general -> reset) and it worked like a charm. Just make sure you back up your phone 1st if you care about your data!
Also, maybe stupid question, but does this tool unlock also, or do I need to use ultrasn0w or something similar?

Hi I'm not sure if anyone else is having the same problem.. But with this jailbreak I'm unable to delete apps. My screen freezes as the apps are wiggling and I have to do a hard reset. I usually get stuck on the apple screenso I have to hold the volume up button. Anyway does anyone know the source of this problem? Thanks

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Ive been trying to jailbreak all week and it will not let me do it, it keeps saying to unplug then hit jailbreak to retry but it still doesnt end up working. It reboots but cydia doesnt install. Im getting very very frustrated.,

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I have a jailbroken iPhone 4S on iOS 5.0.1. Would like to upgrade now i can jailbreak. What is the best way to do this while keeping my jailbroken settings. I am also running infiniboard and infinifolders and would really like to keep all my icons in place.